There is speculation that Oscar winner Al Pacino has signed on to join George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan in the third installment of the popular movie series based on the escapades of Danny Ocean and his mixed bag of criminal ‘good-guys’.

While details of the plot are being kept under wraps, a Warner Bros spokeswoman was quoted as saying that the 66-year-old Pacino will play the role of Willie Banks, the operator of a large casino complex in Las Vegas, Nevada. If this is true, one can only assume that Pacino’s casino will be the target of Danny Ocean and his crew.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts have confirmed they Prestige will no longer play their roles in the latest installment, building speculation as to who will play Ocean’s love interest in the film.

The producer of Ocean’s 12, Jerry Weintraub, discussed the problems of making a new sequel. Speaking about Ocean’s 12, he mused, “The question is, how do you make another one that’s better than this one? This one’s awful good. First one’s awful good. We found a way to make a better one this time, I think, so we’ll see if we have an idea, a way to do it, and we’ll do it.”

Shooting for the new film is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in July and ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ is expected to hit theatres in mid-2007. Critics will give their own opinions on the quality of the movie and whether Jerry Weintraub was successful in his efforts to improve on Ocean’s 12 – but the real litmus test will be in the box office takings. Producers don’t make films like this for the critics – the box office figures on opening weekend should give us all a good idea whether Ocean’s 13 was, indeed, an improvement on the first two.